Reply to Is it time for private school vouchers in Montgomery County?

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Reply to "Is it time for private school vouchers in Montgomery County?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Great way to shift wealth towards the wealthy while reducing effectiveness for the rest by decimating economies of scale.  It's a win-win for the self-centered, with the added bonuses of 1) being able to note the resulting degradation of public education as a support for the "need" to continue voucher programs and 2) being able to subsidize single-view religious teaching.

But, hey, there's always one or two edge cases from the rest to whom they can point as benefitting.  "See, in America, anyone can get ahead.  Let the invisible hand of the market do its thing!"

What a crock...[/quote]

Ha ha!  What are the "economies of scale" that provide benefits to MCPS consumers?  The top notch curriculum generated by their Central Office?  School lunches?  Of, never mind, subsidized by the Feds.  HR?  Talk to the applicants who don't hear back for months.  Etc.  Your whole logic is disjointed.  If public schools are left with fewer high needs students perhaps they can specialize.  [/quote]

I think it would be the opposite it would be most likely that the highest needs students will be the ones who don't get school choice because only a few select schools cater to students with IEPs and there aren't a lot of private schools with esol programs [/quote]

Students with disabilities are a very diverse population of students with various special needs. Very few students would need services that would be the equivalent to a 100% pull out from a general education environment. Also, some private school students still qualify for MCPS special education services.

I was frustrated with the treatment and lack of support for one child that I transferred him out of MCPS to a non-parochial private school that had about 12 students per class and a disability support counselor. My child thrived because the teachers had time to give him the attention he needed. Much of what would have been considered special education services to learn organizational, time management, and study skills was woven into the universal design of their curriculum. My son’s school also offered a supervised study hall period in the library so the disability support counselor would have periodic checks which help with the transition to the school. The school took the educational data for my child, the MCPS plan, had one meeting with my child and myself, and fully implemented our agreed to plan. A truly positive and rewarding experience.

I would say, before we chose the private we selected, we looked at other schools. Not all privates had the ability to meet my son’s needs and schools like Lab and McLean were not the least restrictive environment for my child. Privates are not one size fits all institutions, however when there’s a good fit, the environment is an appropriate remedy when MCPS doesn’t have the resources to implement a child’s IEP.[/quote]

Even if they don’t need pull out support, they still require something more than the status quo.  Whether that is additional time on test, smaller classes, or different curriculum, all of which comes at a cost.  Lets take smaller classes for instance.  Many kids, special ed or neuro typical  could benefit from smaller classes.  But that requires more space, more teachers, etc etc.  So yes a smaller private can offer this, but its not necessarily less expensive or less resource intensive.[/quote]

Much of Special Education would benefit all students. That’s why a universal design of implementing a plan for a disabled child is a best practice in education. Any general education teacher will say class size is key as far as how well they can meet the needs of all students.

As is, MCPS is at a low point in meeting the needs of students with disabilities. Complaints and law suits are on the rise and MCPS is wasting funds for noncompliance. How do they dig themselves out of the mess left over from ignoring students with disabilities for the past two years?

A voucher system would provide a mechanism to allow students who MCPS doesn’t meet their needs to go elsewhere. This could be aimed at disabled students who have needs for more attention and support, but it could also be exceptional students who need more enrichment but didn’t get chosen in the magnet school lottery process.

If enrollment declines in MCPS schools, it would lower the staffing and infrastructure needs of the entire school system. Less size, less bureaucracy, and focus for what MCPS does best - the middle 50% of students.[/quote]

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